Final beam signed at Harrah's Waterfront Conference Center site

In perhaps the most striking picture of Atlantic City’s transition to a more diversified economy, casino and political power brokers signed the final steel beam at the Harrah’s Waterfront Conference Center construction site Wednesday.

The center, with its 100,000 square feet of conference space, will cost about $126 million to build and is expected to be completed by the end of August 2015.

“This is exactly what the future of Atlantic City, the future of gaming, the future of Caesars Entertainment is all about,” Mayor Don Guardian said at a pre-signing press conference.

Gary Loveman, CEO of Caesars Entertainment Corp., said the Northeast conference market is worth $16 billion. Atlantic City gets 1 percent of that business, he said. “There’s no reason why that should be the case.”

“What we’re building on this site will be the most technologically advanced conference facility in the region,” Loveman said, adding that 25 conference contracts have been signed for the facility.

The meetings market “is different than the exposition business,” he said. The Atlantic City Convention Center is “a very nice facility, but it’s a different thing than having, for example, a pharmaceutical company bring its top 100 people to the type of facility we’re building for their type of high-level meetings.”

The steel skeleton at the Harrah’s site is expected be fully enclosed — or “skinned” — in the next few months.

The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority committed $45 million to the project, which was also approved for $24.1 million in state tax breaks over 20 years.

Source: Press of Atlantic City